Hyderabad, Aug. 25: This “scorpion” is worth £10 million.

The Falaknuma Palace, which was home to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad Mehboob Ali Pasha and opened as a heritage hotel in November 2010, has been assessed by Christie’s.

The British auction house has put the value of the palace, laid out in the shape of a scorpion with its two pincers spread out as wings on the northern side, at £10 million (Rs 87 crore).

The palace has three heritage rooms, 60 other rooms and is famous for its jade room and a 100-seat dining table carved out of rosewood imported from Myanmar.

Hotel general manager Girish Sehgal said the valuation was a conservative appraisal if one took into account the paintings, furniture, cutlery, manuscripts and works of ivory and stained glass the palace houses. Some of the items cost upwards of £450,000.

The interiors boast of murals, 16 types of woodwork, including those of mahogany, teak and Indonesian wood, works of 18 types of marble, a 10ft-tall, two-tonne manually operated organ, gold-rimmed lamps and wall fixtures like paintings of the English royal family and the nawab himself. Italian marble has been used in the entire area spread over 9,39,712 square metres.

Sources in the Nizams’ trust office said they had invited Christie’s to assess and value all the movable and immovable assets in the palace. “Most of our assets, including artifacts, are over 100 years old,” said a spokesperson.

The ceilings boast of Venetian chandeliers that match the ceiling fans in the palace, the first residential structure to have electricity in the Hyderabad Nizam’s kingdom. The telephone and electrical system were introduced in 1883.

Nestled in the middle of a manicured garden, the palace fell into disuse in 1911, when the Nizam died. For nearly 90 years it stayed like that till Mukarram Jah, the current titular Nizam, decided to hire it out to the Taj group to transform the palace into a heritage hotel at the turn of the century. It took another 10 years for nearly 800 workers, including artisans, to restore the palace.

Perched atop a 2,000ft-high hillock, some 5km from the Charminar in Hyderabad, the palace was designed by an English architect. It took nine years to complete the structure in the 1880s.

Falak-numa in Urdu means “like the sky” or “a mirror in the sky”.

One of the highlights of the palace is the reception room, whose ceiling is decorated with frescoes and gilded reliefs. A marbled staircase leads to the upper floor.

The palace houses a large collection of rare treasures, including manuscripts, books and the jade collection, which is considered unique. The library has one of the finest collections of the Quran in India.

Other items of high value include the collection of Venetian chandeliers. It is said that it took six months to clean a 138-arm chandelier. The palace has 40 such chandeliers adorning the halls.

The palace has hosted royal guests like King Edward VIII and Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia. Today’s guests can also get to live like royalty by shelling out Rs 5 lakh for a day in the renovated hotel by opting for one of the heritage suites.

Guests can also see first-hand the facilities the palace enjoyed in those days — a petrol pump, a refrigerator and an attached bathroom, said to be the first in India.

Lower-tariff suites are also available, starting from Rs 30,000 a night.

Hardly a sting when you think of the “scorpion’s” heritage.